Internet radio dealt severe blow as Copyright Board rejects appeal

I also have signed the petition and encourage everyone who hasn't done so to get it done, today. Time is of the essence since all royalty fees are retroactive to January of 2006; Stations will be forced to declare bankruptcy if this action is not stopped. So, come on, let's all get on the bandwagon together and support internet radio. You'll be glad you did!

Originally posted by Valdimer
They've got my support.

As a musician, I know that internet radio is an untapped resource for local bands. That gives us an oppurtunity to get our music out to people that normally would not be able to hear it by coming to the shows.

I also am a musician and listen to internet radio frequently (live365.com) it's so refreshing to hear the music you actually want to hear from time to time, I play guitar, and they have a station that plays only guitar instrumental music i've never found another station like it. If it gets canned I'll be upset, The music business is just plain dirty, Fat cat record executives sitting back and making millions off of other peoples gifts and talents. I know personally of gifted musicians under contract who are purposefully not promoted just because some exec. somewhere sitting in an office decides not to use them, but keep them under contract just so they can control them.............the whole business just stink's

Originally posted by Stormrider
Time is of the essence since all royalty fees are retroactive to January of 2006; Stations will be forced to declare bankruptcy if this action is not stopped.

When are they being forced to pay? Are we talking hours, days, or weeks?

Bump.

It's that old old trick - create economic barriers to freedom, entrench in legal system, take over world.

I remember when they said this:


Was going to be a threat to the recording industry too.
A threat to royalties, and that those "poor musicians" wouldn't get their paychecks.

Those aren't the paychecks they are worried about.

Imagine, being able to copy songs, actually record duplicates, and give them to your friends.

[edit on 17-4-2007 by spacedoubt]

Originally posted by TJ11240

Originally posted by Stormrider
Time is of the essence since all royalty fees are retroactive to January of 2006; Stations will be forced to declare bankruptcy if this action is not stopped.

When are they being forced to pay? Are we talking hours, days, or weeks?

THe change in royalties is effective May 15, 2007. So, yes, we're talking less than a month. Here's a story I came across while researching the subject. KInd of puts the whole thing in the perspective of the medium sized internet radio station.

www.cio-today.com...

If you really want to save Internet Radio Hand Write a letter (I know it's a lost art) to your Congressman or Senators and tell them why IR should be saved. Those letters do get the attention of the elected officials staff more than just signing a online petition. Make your voice known with a handwritten request. It is tons more effective, especially if you do it in a civil manner.

The ten minutes of time it takes to write a short note will be worth more than dozens of people signing an online petition. They do listen to their constituents sometimes. Politics is still an "squeaky wheel get the grease" kinda game. Be as Squeaky as possible.

What You Can Do

Meanwhile, make your voice heard by the lawmakers on Capitol Hill! Call, write, e-mail, and/or visit your Representatives and Senators today and request that:

Congress void the retroactive $500 per channel minimum that threatens to drive Live365's small webcasters out of business.


Congress reinstate the Small Webcaster Settlement Act. The CRB declared that the 2002 SWSA would not be extended despite the Small Webcaster contracts SoundExchange offered on its website and signed with Small Webcasters for 2006 and 2007.


Stop the retroactive, ex post facto royalty payments for 2006 mandated by the CRB, until all appeals have been heard.


Create a level playing field by bringing the Internet radio per performance rates into parity with traditional and satellite radio. Unlike internet radio, traditional radio does NOT pay royalties to record labels or artists for songs performed over the air.

www.live365.com...

Though it's not nearly as effective as a postmarked letter, you can also send an e-mail message to your Senators and Representatives. With your zipcode or address, you can use this quick, easy e-mail form to get directly to the congressperson for your location: www.congress.org... (use the form letter found there or write your own story)

What a shame. :shk:

Thanks for bringing this out SO, as I had not followed this as closely as I should have been.

I would not have known of half the musicians I do, if it was not for internet radio. I hear something I like, and I listen to a few more songs by that artist, I find out where to buy the CD, and the band gets another loyal fan. Its definitely broken some language barriers for me, I can even now speak broken Romanian with some of my customers because of discovering new artists via internet radio.

It's like these people are slapping artists in the face everytime something like this comes up.

Ah, SO beat me too it! But I'm glad I'm not the only one aware of this travesty!

I cannot tell you how this irks me to no end, that the corporate pimps are trying to rape and pillage Internet music business, working as some strong arm for traditional commercial radio, and bullying indie label musicians into being corporate whores- or getting out of the business as well. There is so much going on here.

There is NO reason nor justification for what the Copyright Royalty Board has decided to do. For goodness sake they are raising music royalty rates by 300 to 1200 percent for webcasters!! It's insanity!

But don't be fooled, while they are motivated by power and greed indeed, they are not looking to make money directly from the royalties they are imposing on webcasters, they are looking to silence them. They want to silence commercial free Internet radio.

This simply must be their goal and motivation, because that is all that will come of this. They can't touch extraterrestrial radio, (Satellite people, not alien) so the only other "Commercial free" radio that competes with "regular" broadcast radio are the Internet stations.

For most Internet music sites, the webcasters simply can not pay such ridiculous rates-and the Copyright Royalty board knows this. So, what is their real goal? Looks pretty obvious to me.

The new royalties exceed the revenue of these sites and the webcasters, who are already more than willing to pay the regular royalties they have been paying all along, will be unable to meet the new demand. If this is not stopped, the Internet stations will be forced to pay these new exorbitant fees retroactive to Jan 1, 2006 causing them to go immediately bankrupt and out of business.

SoundExchange, a nonprofit trade organization that collects and distributes royalty fees from digital transmissions, called the decision a victory. (snip)

Of course they did! They are in the pocket of those whom, with their power and greed, are attacking and strong-arming an opponent that is virtually defenseless. It's an easy victory by those armed with power and money. Corporate thugs.

Executive Director John Simson said that artists and labels "look forward to working with the Internet Radio industry."

The only artists to want to promote this must be the average corporate whores, or those too ignorant to understand they aren't really going to be getting these outrageous royalties, which border on extortion, but they were used as pawns to support something designed to actually screw them!

For the artists, once the webcasters go bankrupt, they will be receiving NO royalties from Internet radio- because it wont exist! So, they will loose money in royalties.

There are people fighting it, but as always not enough. Save Internet Radio has a mail system to make it easy to send a pre-drafted email to your senators and representatives, you don't even have to know who your senators are, it handles everything, but how many will bother using it?

Will you?

I, of course already have, but it's like promoting voting in an election-people are so apathetic. They figure 'everyone else' will do what is necessary. Or that they, as one person, can't make a difference. Or that they don't personally use Internet music, so why should they get involved?

There are so many issues here-and it really is telling, but unfortunately it's telling the same stories of corporate greed and American apathy.

2l8



[edit on 18-4-2007 by 2l82sk8]

As has been said by others, I have bought cds because of something I heard on Internet radio.

In the UK while in my car I do not listen to the radio, I play CDs. The radio is #e. Its all play-listed effluent. Throughout the UK people think they are listening to a local station but no, quite often its some networked national crud.

The few real local stations nationally seem to have the same play-lists.
A few years back in industry, my team and I, when bored, used to pick 5 to 10 tracks that we would expect to be played by end of the day. Often, the game was won by mid morning. It was shocking how long some songs stayed in a play-list..

When I used to listen to the radio, I rarely bought cds because quite often the aired track was the best on an album and older, wiser and paranoid I did not want to be programmed into buying what Radio Corporate wanted me to.

Yes some IR is amateurish an approach but generally these are people with real personalities and opinions who are doing the gig because they want to, not because they want to be on a magazine cover or just going through the motions because they are signed to a megabucks contract.

There is a disease throughout music anyway IMHO. Money. Very few seem to want to make music, they just want to make money.

Lets face it. Most of the "entertainment " industry is tied up and they are protecting their own. Taking down IR will not make me listen to the corporate crud. The few music CDs and audio cds I have purchased recently have been due to listening to IR. No IR means no CD buys from me. If we all did that, they would have to listen, or go out of business. OK so some musicians lose a soft living, good, music is better written from people who are struggling.

Hey thats a thought Bono doing a concert in aid of himself (isnt that why he does them anyway?), excellent stuff, let him live in poverty before he tells us how to pay for someone elses

Internet Radio Rules

Originally posted by Flyer

Originally posted by Valdimer
They've got my support.

As a musician, I know that internet radio is an untapped resource for local bands. That gives us an oppurtunity to get our music out to people that normally would not be able to hear it by coming to the shows.

Exactly, its free advertising and exposure but the morons at the RIAA think people are just recording all the streams instead of paying for CDs.

Next up, suing shops or restaurants for royalties if they dare to play the radio or music on their sound system.

Did you also know musical instrument shops have to pay the RIAA and co money in case someone plays a copyrighted riff while trying and instrument because it counts as a public performance?

These people havent seen a penny from me in 10 years so Im doing all I can.

See, we don't care about royalties at this point. We just want to get heard, and with internet radio, it's a medium that reaches EVERYBODY. I don't think I can honestly think of a single person who doesn't have a computer.

Hell, let 'em play my riffs in the music shop!

"Who's that?"

"Half of Something, you should check 'em out."

"Right on! Play that riff again!"

Internet radio is broadcast just like regular radio stations, it's just on the internet. Treat them the same way as regular radio stations, and everything will be fine, or else, like someone said before, we'll just download it anyway .

What about broadcasting radio stations that also allow people to stream the station from their website? Would they have to pay two different royalty fees? This judgment will never stick. I bet these people are friends with the congressman who said the internet was "a series of tubes."

Originally posted by sturm55
What about broadcasting radio stations that also allow people to stream the station from their website? Would they have to pay two different royalty fees? This judgment will never stick. I bet these people are friends with the congressman who said the internet was "a series of tubes."

No, the whole US political system is corrupt. They are allowed to accept gifts and holidays from all the corporations, then they will try to push through whatever bills these corporations want.

The senators dont represent the people, they represent the MPAA, RIAA, Ford, Walmart etc. You might as well have the presidents of these companies in congress.

The average person will keep on getting screwed until the whole political system is changed over there.

I run a small internet radio station,I have also been a dj on a larger radio station.

Its pretty easy to set up your own station and fairly cheap.

The provider that I use to 'stream' my music,told me that this will not apply to any of us 'small time dj's' because we do not make a profit from our shows.

So my point is,there are alot of smaller internet radio stations out there that wont get the axe as far as I know.

Shoutcast is your friend

Isn't that the whole point though, the little net stations will get screwed. Previously little stations payed royalties based on their revenue, not on a per song basis, which costs alot more. Shoutcast will be taken down probably if this goes through.

Originally posted by Bootyac
The provider that I use to 'stream' my music,told me that this will not apply to any of us 'small time dj's' because we do not make a profit from our shows.

So my point is,there are alot of smaller internet radio stations out there that wont get the axe as far as I know.

My friend I think you, or your provider is misinformed. Have you thus far evaded paying royalties? This issue isn't about profit, it is about the songs and royalities.

I would think having your own station you'd know all about this! This is scary that we have small Intenet stations thinking "Well, it wont harm us little guys" when in fact that is exactly whom is targeted.

2l8

[edit on 18-4-2007 by 2l82sk8]

Originally posted by sturm55
Isn't that the whole point though, the little net stations will get screwed.

Exactly!!!

Originally posted by sturm55Previously little stations payed royalties based on their revenue, not on a per song basis, which costs alot more.

Yeah, its per song per user and it's .08 cents a song/per listener and will eventually go up to nearly .20 cents within the next couple of years!

As far as I know, it has nothing to do with how much, or *if* a station is operating at a profit or any other standard, it is about royalty fees for songs played online on Internet music stations period.



it stinks!

[edit on 18-4-2007 by 2l82sk8]

Dear Mrs. ________:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding the proposed new royalty rates for online radio. I always enjoy hearing from __________s about challenging public policy issues that are important to them, and I particularly appreciate your concerns regarding the future of I nternet radio. As you may know, I am a strong supporter of maintaining an open Internet that fosters innovation. No other communications medium in recent history has had such a profound impact on the expression of speech, education, the dissemination of information and the exchange of ideas.

Online radio is a great example of how the Internet has helped to cultivate innovation and offered consumers access to new an d personalized information. However, the great technological and commercial progress that has come with the ongoing development of the Internet has also brought with it numerous new public policy dilemmas, such as how to balance copyright protection for music and other property with the innovation that the Internet continues to cultivate.


As you know, in March 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) proposed a new online radio royalty structure, which would amend the system that has been in place since 2002 and establish a new scale for royalties charged to I nternet radio companies on a per-song, per-listener basis. The proposed rates will begin at 0.08 cents per song per listener, retroactive to January 1, 2006 , and will reach 0.19 cents per song per listener in 2010. The CRB has since announced that it will hear appeals of its previous ruling. Your concerns about this matter are significant and I hope that this period for appeal will enable the CRB to carefully consider points of view like yours.

Thank you again for sharing your concerns regarding these important Internet radio issues with me. Please be assured that I will continue to follow this issue closely and that I will keep your views in mind in the future if related measures come before the Senate. For more informa tion on my support for an open Internet and other important issues before the United States Senate, please visit my website at http://__________.senate.gov .



Sincerely,

Senator ____________________.

Is this typical tap dancing apeasement, or what?

Just wondering if this sounds similar to what everyone else is getting from their senators. At first all I got was the typical "Senator so-and-so has received your letter and blah blah blah..." standard reply. Then I got this to which I replied to clarify my stand at what is at risk if we lose Internet radio...I'm not sure what to expect, but I'd like to know the response and replies everyone else gets.

For those who have not taken action: If you do NOTHING else, if you do not post your opinion on this thread, or give a damn, if you do not email your senator, fax them, or write them an actual letter sent USPS, or bother adding your name to a list of others petitioning against this...

at least flag this thread...there it is right up there...that little red flag button...just push it...maybe someone more proactive will become aware of this situation and then you have actually contributed something positive.

Thanks,
2l8

I have not as yet received any reply from either of my senators or my congressman. Hopefully, I will in the next 24-48 hours. How about everybody else?

It's extremelly frightening to watch the coordinated assault that is being launched on the usefulness of the internet. Especially considering the established precedent this would set of totally different regulations for the internet than other mediums. As anyone who knows even a little bit about the US justice system can tell you it tends to follow the precedents of past cases....

This leaves other portions of the internet and free expression extremelly vulnerable in it's wake... Hopefully people will wake up soon and realize what is happening under their noses. Before anything that isn't mega corporation sponsored with the usual suspects recieving a cut is deemed flat out illegal.